Happily Ever After

Romance Novelist Arlynn Presser Had A Rough Start In Life But Now Has It All--home, Family And A Career

August 20, 1995|By Mary K. Williams. Special to the Tribune.

There was nothing romantic about ArLynn Presser's childhood. Her parents gave her up for adoption when she was 4 and she was raised by an adoptive mother struggling with mental problems. At 15, Presser was a high school dropout living in a group home in DuPage County, virtually alone in the world.

Now, 20 years later, Presser is the author of 10 romance novels, including "Second to None," voted this year's best young adult romance by Romance Writers of America. The book was also one of five finalists for the prestigious Janet Dailey Award, a $10,000 prize that recognizes the best romance addressing an important social issue.

Presser's achievements can be counted at the cash register, too. "Casey's Flyboy," her first adult Silhouette romance, sold more than 70,000 copies and has been published in five languages. Her subsequent novels, most of them set in the Chicago area, have been similarly successful and several made Waldenbooks' romance best-seller lists.

"I used to think that having 10 books published was a huge deal, but now my goal is to sell 25," said Presser, who lives in Winnetka. She said the true test for a romance writer is to continue turning out two or three books every year.

Presser writes "category" or "series" romances. Sometimes the love is steamy and sometimes it is sweet, but the plot of an adult romance follows a basic formula: hero meets heroine, they are attracted to each other, their relationship is beset by conflicts and obstacles, they work out these difficulties, and (usually) they get married.

Romance fiction is immensely popular, accounting for 48.6 percent of all mass market popular fiction sold in the U.S., according to Romance Writers of America statistics.

"This is commercial, not literary fiction," said New York-based Alice Orr, Presser's agent. "She produces stories I can sell."

But Presser's success story is not just about how one talented writer made it in the competitive world of romance fiction. For Presser has also created a fairy tale ending to her own nightmarish beginnings.

"I never thought I'd have a family of my own," she said.

Now she has a husband, two children, two step-children, and "more parents than anyone needs."

Family matters are central in "Second to None" and in fact overshadow the heroine's romantic entanglements. In the book, published last year by Z*Fave/Kensington, the heroine, ignored by her father since he ended the brief affair that produced her, copes with his request that she donate bone marrow to save her dying half-brother.

Presser admits that she did not write the book out of concern for fighting illegitimacy or leukemia.

"My real aim was to write a good story, something romantic about a 17-year-old figuring out her life," she said.

Presser is highly qualified to tell the story of a troubled teenager. Born in Chicago in 1960 to Justin and Aleta Leiber, both University of Chicago students in their early 20s, she was given up for adoption four years later. Six months after her adoption, her natural parents were divorced.

Adopted by a childless Western Springs couple, Donald and Jewell Patrick, she was not permitted to take any clothing or possessions to her new home. Her name was changed from ArLynn Leiber to Lynn Patrick.

Presser remembers arriving at the Patricks' home, looking around and thinking "this is one strange place. I felt so disoriented."

Presser's adoptive mother showed signs of mental problems for years, she said, and the home situation deteriorated dramatically when Presser was about 12. She said her mother became hallucinatory and there were visits by police and social workers. Presser was removed from the home at age 15 and placed in a group home. She dropped out of school for about a year. "I couldn't get my bearings," she said.

But when she was about 16 she began to pull herself out of the dungeon her life had become. "I figured out that if I didn't get it together, I would have an awful life. I realized that I couldn't wait for someone to come and save me," she said.

She resolved to go to college and found a college that would accept her based on her excellent SAT scores, even though she had not finished high school. After one year at now-closed George Williams College in Downers Grove, she transferred to North Central College in Naperville to study creative writing with Richard Eastman, a locally respected English professor. She paid for her education through scholarships, grants and "paperwork you wouldn't believe."

A different path

Always a voracious reader, Presser had started writing when she was about 10, filling notebooks with fantastic tales and passing them around to her friends. She knew she wanted to be a writer. Working with Eastman, Presser began to produce short stories and poems, some of which were published locally. But when her work was rejected by more prestigious national literary publications, she felt she had failed and she abandoned her hopes of a writing career. "I had no idea how to make a living at writing," she said.